


Six Lifetimes

by Akiko_Natsuko



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Love, Promises, Reincarnation, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-25 11:07:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16659955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akiko_Natsuko/pseuds/Akiko_Natsuko
Summary: Their time was cut short by war, and in the ruins of Magnolia Cana makes a promise that they will find one another in another lifetime. What she doesn't expect is for it to take multiple attempts to get happy ending she wants with Laxus.





	Six Lifetimes

   Cana felt all the strength drain out of her legs when she finally spotted the blond hair she had been looking for amongst the devastated ruins of Magnolia. Only the Dragon-slayer wasn’t stood waiting for her with a cocky grin like he should have been. Instead, he was sprawled limply on the ground, his body partially obscured from view by rubble, and for a moment all she could see was crimson. Crimson. Not the deep purple of his favourite shirt. Not the blue of his eyes. Even his hair she realised was tainted by that crimson, and her breath caught in her throat _._

_Laxus…_

    Somehow she managed to stumble forward, not caring that the moments were pulling on her own injuries, unable to feel that pain over the gaping hole that was threatening to open itself in her chest.

   She had known even before she reached his side that it was too late. That she was too late. She had known, but it didn’t make it any easier when her gaze landed on the bloody chest that should have been rising and falling with his breaths, but instead lay still and silent, and a noise that was halfway between a sob and a howl escaped as she dropped to her knees beside him. He looked like he had died hard, and her hands shook as she reached out and ghosted over his injuries, as though she could magically find some way to heal him. To bring him back, but she knew that it was too late. That not even Porlyusica and Wendy could fix this, and she squeezed her eyes shut as tears began to trickle down her cheeks.

_It’s too late…_

   Their relationship was a relatively recent development because it had taken them a long time to see what lay right in front of their eyes, distracted by their own troubles. Laxus continually seeking to prove that he was more than Makarov’s grandson, that he was more than the surname he bore, and she had been entirely focused on reaching S-Class, on becoming someone who had the right to stand there and tell Gildarts she was his daughter. Then there had been the seemingly neverending series of catastrophes that had befallen the guild. It seemed that everywhere they turned their guild found trouble, and there was no time for romance when they were fighting to hold the guild together. Then had come the disbandment and they had gone their separate ways.

   Ironically it had been that which had given them the opportunity to become something more. She had been passing through on a job and had stopped by Blue Pegasus seeking news and alcohol to dull the loneliness that came with the loss of her home and family. She had been stunned to find him and the Raijinshuu there, it had been months at that point since she’d last seen one of her guildmates and she had found herself hanging around for far longer than she had intended. At first, it had been amusing to see how awkward Laxus was at a host, but after a couple of days she had taken pity on him and claimed him as her own host. It had been awkward, seriously awkward at first, but slowly they had begun to talk and to realise that they were more similar than they had thought.

   Nothing had really happened though. She had left a few days later, and he had seen her off with a smile and nothing more. However, she found herself gravitating back to the bar more and more often, even going so far as to skip out of jobs. He had welcomed her each time, slowly opening up more and more around her. They danced around each other for months, and in the end, the next step had come barely three weeks before Natsu and Fairy Tail came crashing back into their lives. She’d had to go as an urgent job had come up, and she had been preparing to leave without a seconds thought as usual when suddenly Laxus had been there, his arms on her shoulders and her mind had short-circuited for a moment before she realised that he was kissing her. And that she was kissing him. She had still taken the job, but her thoughts had been filled with him…

   With the guild back together it had been easier to get closer, but still slow. Both wary of making it public, and then war had come, and everything had been put aside. Neither one of them willing to risk the safety of the guild because of their own feelings, and so they had parted with a gentle kiss and a whispered promise that once everything was resolved, they would talk.

   That was never going to happen now, and it was only now that she felt her heart splintering in her chest that she realised just how far she had fallen. Just how much he meant to her. _We waited too long._ Weeping she forced her eyes open once more, hoping desperately that something might have changed. That he might have come back to her. But he was as still and silent as ever, and she leant forward with a sob, studying his pale features for a moment before tenderly pressing her lips against hers, praying that somehow he would be able to feel the kiss where he was now, that he would know how she felt.

“Next time…next time I won’t wait as long,” she whispered quietly against his lips when she pulled back, tracing his face with trembling fingers. “Next time we will have a lifetime together.”

_It’s a promise…_

****

   He was losing her. They had known that it was coming for months, but now that he was sat there in the depressingly plain hospital room clinging to her hand, watching as her breath clouded the mask over face, he knew that he was nowhere near ready to say goodbye to her.

“Cana,” he whispered, almost afraid to break the silence that had settled over the room and for a moment he thought that she hadn’t heard him, but then chocolate eyes opened, and she tilted her head in his direction, her lips quirking into a weak smile despite the pain she must’ve been in. “Hey…” He tried to force a smile for her, he really did, but he honestly couldn’t remember the last time he had felt truly happy, and instead, he leaned forward to press a small kiss to her cheek and then her nose, hearing the muffled noise that might have been a giggle at the gesture. It was their kiss, one that they could do regardless of whether she was well enough to remove the mask or not. It was theirs. But soon he would be the only one left, the only one that would know just how much that silly kiss meant to them.

“Lax…us,” her voice was weak, barely a thread of sound in the quiet room and his eyes widened in alarm as he realised that she had eased the mask off while he was distracted.

“What are you doing?”

“Please,” her pleading tone froze him as he reached forward to replace it, and she took advantage of his shock to curl her fingers around his reaching hand. “Please…”

“Cana?”

“I want…a proper kiss,” she replied, pausing to cough lightly and he tensed the sound, fingers itching to reach and replace the mask, but he found himself frozen in place by her request. _A proper kiss…_ Clearly, he had hesitated too long because her eyes darkened and her fingers tightened on his hand. “Please…one last one?”

_Don’t say it like that. Don’t make it sound like a last request._

     He didn’t voice that thought aloud though. She had always been the realist of the pair, accepting her fate far quicker and with more dignity than he had and as much as he hated to admit it, he knew that she was running out of time. That they were running out of time. _It’s not fair, we were supposed to have more time._ He couldn’t let himself get lost in those thoughts though, because then he would fall apart and she was watching him with pleading eyes, and he heaved out a defeated sigh, already knowing that there was no way he could deny her anything. His heart was heavy as he leaned over the bed, never letting his gaze shift from hers.

“I love you.” _Had he said that enough? Did she know just how much she meant to him?_ From the smile on her lips and the way her eyes softened she did, and he felt tears on his cheeks as he closed the last of the distance between them, feeling her weak breaths tickling her lips for a second before he pressed his against them. Even now after weeks in hospital she tasted like cinnamon and vanilla just as she had the first time they had kissed in the coffee shop across from their halls of residence, and as he deepened the kiss, hands rising to gently cusp her cheeks he tried to pour everything he had and did feel to her into that kiss.

_A lifetime._

_We should have had a lifetime, but I will treasure every moment we did have, and I want you to remember them too._

   He felt her breath faltering, and he pulled back just as the machines around her began to wail. Hands were on his shoulders a moment later pulling him away to let the doctors in, but all he could see was the contented expression on her pale face and the silent ‘thank you’ hanging in the air, and he knew that it was too late. That their time was over. Tears were pouring down his cheeks as he watched them fight to bring her back, and he was completely numb by the time they admitted defeat. Although he came to life when they told him to say farewell, stumbling back to her side, and leaning down to kiss her again. Their kiss, on the cheek and on the nose. _I love you…_

“Next time, we’ll get our lifetime.”

The next time they met too late.

     They encountered each other in a nightclub one evening, and for a brief moment it felt as though the entire world had skidded to halt as she stumbled and he reached out automatically to catch her. The feel of her body against his summoning up memories that he had never made and she stared at him as though he was a ghost she didn’t know. It had only lasted a moment, and then Laxus had released her with a muffled apology as he realised that he had been holding on for longer than was appropriate. Offering her a small smile before turning away and heading for a booth on the far side of the club where he was welcomed by a black-haired woman, and Cana had hesitated for a moment before going off in search of her own date.

   It became a regular occurrence. Everywhere they turned they seemed to run into one another. At the local supermarket. The coffee shop. It seemed as though they were continually being propelled together, and after a light fender bender when a distracted Laxus had collided with the side of her car, they had admitted defeat and traded numbers and names. After that, they saw each other more regularly, rapidly becoming close friends, but that was all they were.

_Friends._

   Cana’s date from the night she had met Laxus, had surprised her a few months later with a proposal and she had said yes, he was a good man who loved her. He had become good friends with Laxus as well, and her father absolutely adored him despite threatening to make sure he would never father any children if he ever hurt her, and more importantly, she loved him. The strange feeling about Laxus never faded away, but it wasn’t enough to sway her from her path and on the day that she walked up the aisle with her father by her side. With Laxus standing beside her husband to be, she never noticed the longing look in blue eyes that lingered a moment too long or the grief that passed over his face as she exchanged her vows and sealed it with a kiss.

   All she knew was that when she came back from her honeymoon, he was gone. Nothing but a message on her phone saying ‘We’ll try again next time’ to show that he had ever been there, and it had taken her years to understand what he meant. Her marriage was a happy one, but there was always something there at the back of her mind that asked ‘what if’ and she knew that came from the blond-haired man who had wandered into her life and then disappeared, and she found herself repeating his last message to herself in rare moments. Deep down she hoped that they would see each other again, whether it was in this life or the next one.

_I want to know what a lifetime with you is like…_

****

They never got to meet in their fourth lifetime.

    Laxus had passed away during childhood from an illness, not living long enough to meet the little, dark-haired girl that moved into the house next to his barely a month after his death. He never got to see the chocolate eyes that would linger on the window of what had been his bedroom for hours on end. Or to know that she had taken to visiting his grave to leave him flower chains after hearing tales about him from his grandfather, or that she would spend hours beside him telling him stories about her life.

   For Cana, it felt as though something was missing. She had never had the sensation until a month before they had moved to Magnolia, but one day the emptiness had blossomed in her chest, and she still had no idea what had caused it. Learning about the boy who had lived in the house next to her new one seemed to fill the hole a little, and even though her parents had disapproved, she had taken to visiting the boy. Going to Laxus’ grave, feeling the hole filling up a little more every time she visited. In the early days, she told him silly tales, stories about her days at school and her home life, and interesting titbits of information that he never got the chance to learn for himself.

   As she grew older, he became her confidant. If someone upset her at school or she argued with her parents, she went to his grave and vented to him, imagining a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy of her age sitting beside her and listening with a soft smile. He was the one who heard her practising her lines for the school play, or for a presentation in her other classes. It was to him rather than her parents that she turned to about her crushes, who she practised confessions on, although she always found herself unable to go through with it. It was Laxus that she ran to when her mother passed away, ignoring her father pleading with her to stop, telling her that it wasn’t healthy to talk to a dead person, especially one she had never met.

   For nine years Laxus was her everything even though they had never met, but she couldn’t stay in Magnolia forever, and university was looming. The emptiness was already beginning to reappear in her heart, tears on her cheeks as she made the familiar trek out to the cemetery to say farewell. She had been sobbing by the time she had reached his grave, her hands shaking as she lay one last flower crown against the stone before gently tracing his name, and her voice cracked as she explained what was going on. Her heart breaking when she caught a flicker of blue eyes before his image faded away entirely as she whispered a quiet ‘Goodbye.’

_I hope that one day I get to meet you in person._

****

In their fifth lifetime, their meeting had been brief.

   They had crossed paths on the street, Laxus rushing to a business meeting and Cana heading for coffee with her friends, but as they passed each other they had frozen, and their eyes had instinctively sought out the others. Memories stirring as they stood trapped in a world of their own, and without thinking Cana found herself moving towards him, completely unaware of everything that was happening around her. It wasn’t until she heard the squealing of wheels that she realised she had stepped onto the road, the world rushing back to her in a dizzying array of sounds as she squeezed her eyes shut, aware that she wasn’t going to get out of the way in time.

   Then something warm and solid collided with her, pushing her out of the path. For a moment everything narrowed down to the fact that she wasn’t dead, although her arm ached from where she had landed hard against the kerb. Then the screaming started. The sound tore through her shock, and she pushed herself up, shaking from the near miss and slowly turned around. Somehow already knowing what she was going to find, and her heart leapt into her throat as she spotted him sprawled in the middle of the road, blood pooling around him and the car that had so nearly hit her at an angle nearby. There was a rushing sound in her ears as she stumbled to her feet and dashed across to him, her heart pounding as a desperate voice in the back of her mind screamed. ‘Not again.’

  His eyes were open when she reached him, and unbelievably his lips quirked up when he spotted her, and she sank down by his side as all the strength fled from her legs.

“Why…?”

“I wasn’t going to…let you get hit,” his face contorted with pain, and she found herself reaching for his hand, and she held back a wince as he gripped hers in a death grip as he tried to ride out the pain. She was vaguely aware of people milling around them, of people ringing for help, but all she could focus on was the blue eyes that were threatening to drift shut, panic curling in her stomach.

“Stay with me. Please stay with me,” Cana was pleading, tears streaking down her cheeks and while she didn’t understand, she knew that she wasn’t crying for a stranger, but for someone, she loved, even though she had no idea how or why. “Please…”

“Next time for sure…” Laxus wheezed, blood speckling his lips as his eyes drifted shut just as loud wails announced the arrival of the emergency services. However, Cana was blind to their arrival, unable to focus on anything but those four simple words and just before they pulled her away to try and work on him, she finished what he had been trying to tell her.

“We’ll have our lifetime…”

_It’s a promise…_

****

   They had met at high-school the sixth time, falling into a relationship as easily as they breathed, a relationship that had endured all the trials and tribulations that school could throw at them. University had come next and not once had they considered going anywhere without the other, eventually deciding to stay in Magnolia and finding a tiny apartment halfway between their schools, ignoring the doubters that whispered it would never last. It was never spoken of, but both of them knew that they had been waiting far too long for this chance and that knowledge shaped their actions and words. Oh, they fought like every couple out of there, but there was a limit to how far they would take, an unspoken fear of what could happen if they pushed that limit.

   The three years of university seemed to pass in a flash, and on the day they were awarded their degrees Laxus proved that he had a flair for the dramatic. Striding onto the stage despite the people trying to stop him and there in front of the world, or rather their small corner of it, he got down on one knee and proposed to her. There was only ever one answer she was going to give, tears of happiness and relief on her cheeks as she allowed him to pull her up onto the stage, forcing back the memory of another time as he gently slid the ring onto her finger.

   Their wedding was small and simple. The knowledge that they had already endured so much to get this point meaning that they had no need for anything elaborate. Yet both of them burned every moment of that day into their memory, trying to ignore the faces that should have been there and weren’t. They had each other, they couldn’t and wouldn’t ask for more.

   Work and children came next. The everyday life they had been denied in their previous encounters, and they treasured each and every moment they shared. Gentle kisses and whispers of ‘I love you’ were shared on a daily basis. And they did everything they could, filling their lives and the lives of their children, and eventually their grandchildren, with life and laughter. They travelled and saw the world, they watched their children grow, said hellos and farewells to friends and families, but all that mattered was that every time they came home to one another.

   It was seventy years after they first met that they passed away, surrounded by family, but only with eyes for each other as this time they made a new promise.

“We’ll have many more lifetimes like this.”


End file.
